1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for creating a layout model for a mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) from component information created by an electrical CAD including heights and layout information of components, and for manufacturing a device for which a design is supported by an interlock of the electrical CAD and the mechanical CAD.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, electrical designing with an electrical CAD and mechanical designing with a mechanical CAD has been performed in parallel in designing of the information processing devices. The electrical designing includes designing of a circuit on a printed board, and the mechanical designing includes designing of a shape of a housing and a layout of components.
It is possible to perform the electric designing and the mechanical designing in parallel. However, a shape of a housing, for example, can put a restriction on a shape or layout of an electrical component. Therefore, information on a design with regard to the electrical designing and the mechanical design is repeatedly exchanged, as the design has progressed. To address the needs, it has been developed a system that aids the electrical CAD and the mechanical CAD to interlock with a capability of facilitating an exchange of information required in the electrical designing and the mechanical designing. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-353341 describes a three-dimensional-model creating device that aids in an interference check by the mechanical CAD by replacing information on a component shape included in the information on the electrical designing with information on a component shape in three-dimensional.
However, because the above three-dimensional-model creating device creates a three-dimensional model from information created by the electrical CAD without any process, it is hard to use the created three-dimensional model in the mechanical CAD.
For example, because most mechanical CADs have different coordinate systems from the electrical CADs, the mechanical CAD is required to transform coordinates of components of the three-dimensional model created by the electrical CAD. The number of components in the three-dimensional model created by the electrical CAD is so large that a processing speed in the mechanical CAD could become lower. Although the mechanical designing should be performed depending on insulation properties of the electrical components, the mechanical designing is performed not depending on the insulation properties because of lack of information on the insulation properties.